DST - The Cambridge University Strathspey and Reel Club

Young dancer, and member of the Cambridge University Strathspey and Reel Club, Lee Colwill tells us all about dancing at university...

'The Cambridge University Strathspey and Reel Club celebrated its 75th anniversary last year and is still going strong! We were particularly delighted to welcome an influx of new student dancers this year as we cautiously returned to dancing in-person. Numbers fluctuate week by week, but we can usually guarantee at least two complete sets, which wasn’t always the case even before the pandemic! In part, I think this is the result of a reaction against the isolation of lockdown – people are happier than ever to have an activity that guarantees interaction with others in a fun and sociable setting. But it’s also thanks to effort put in by the committee to publicise the society – through our updated website, presence at the university Freshers’ Fair, and perhaps most importantly our Freshers’ Week ceilidh, which kicked the academic year off with a bang.

CUS&RC is just one part of a complicated constellation of folk dance and Scottish-related societies in and around Cambridge, with the Venn diagram of membership most closely resembling a very lumpy circle. This means that there’s almost always something on, even during the university holidays when regular classes stop, which has been fantastic for me, as a PhD student only loosely tethered to the term system. During term-time, we (jointly with the Cambridge RSCDS branch) run two weekly country dance classes (mixed-ability and advanced), as well as less-frequent Highland and Scottish Step classes. There is also ‘RonDancing’ – named in honour of its founder Ron Nedderman, who delighted in complicated and intricate dances – and a variety of informally organised classes, as well as tea dances and balls.

CUS&RC is nominally a student society, and we do have a sizeable contingent of student members, doing degrees ranging from undergraduate archaeology to a PhD in neuroscience. But classes – and indeed membership – are open to all, and we have plenty of members who are former students, or simply people who live nearby and love Scottish dancing. One of CUSRC’s real strengths as a society is its strong social element. There’s the time spent chatting in and around the classes themselves, of course – perhaps more of that than our teachers would like! – but also a regular rotation of other social activities like picnics, balls, and get-togethers that give the society a strong sense of community. Even during the height of lockdown, we kept up our socialising, with online Burns Night dinners and regular video calls. One of the unexpected benefits of everything moving online was that it allowed us to keep in touch with people who have moved away from Cambridge and who are now dancing in France, Germany, and even further afield.

Now that we’re dancing in-person again, it’s always wonderful to have old members come back to dance with us whenever they’re in the vicinity. We also have strong links with nearby groups – especially those in London, Oxford and Hertfordshire – whose events we often attend. One of the highlights of the dancing calendar here is the annual Oxford and Cambridge Highland Ball, the location of which alternates each year, but which is always a great opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones.

While I of course love the music and the physical exhilaration of dancing, it’s the people that keep me coming back to Scottish country dancing year after year!'

Many thanks to Lee for this blog and for Saskia Frisby, President of The Cambridge University Strathspey and Reel Club.